Chapter 8 - The deal

Lukas POV

I pushed the exit door and paced outside of Salvatore’s boxing gym. The tightness of my pants made it unbearable to walk, so I tried to reposition my swollen bulge, but it did nothing to help.

Why the fuck did I kiss Max like that? But most importantly, why didn’t she push me away like I thought she would?

When Max left abruptly during our coffee together, I had a sudden pang of longing to see her again. Unfortunately, I had no means of contacting her, as the file Jace had given me contained almost no information on her. At that point, I had only been tailing her from Mortimer’s bail bonds to her house, then to the boxing studio. I  thought it would be just another simple job of tracking and reporting. But as soon as I entered Sal’s and saw her move, how she fought, and how she carried herself, I knew right then and there that she was the most curious and beautiful creature I had ever seen. Max was a force of nature. I had sparred with her and hadn’t even gone easy on her, but she made me work double-time. This had never happened before.

Thoughts of her constantly invaded my brain and clouded my judgement in an unprecedented way. I wondered if what I felt was a sign that I had met my destined mate. The elders in my pack had mentioned that hundreds of years ago, werewolves were said to have destined mates, but over time, we lost the ability to find them. Nowadays, only a handful were lucky enough to have powerful feelings when they meet their destined partners, and I believed that the possessiveness and the intense emotions I had when I met Max were signs that she could be the one. All I saw was her while the rest of the world peeled away in a blur of movements.

But why did it have to be Max of all the women in this city?

My attention was drawn to my pocket as something inside vibrated, causing me to lose my train of thought. I pulled out my cell phone and noticed I had three missed calls from Jace.

Shit.

I had to meet him tonight, and I didn’t know what I would report back. I couldn’t tell him what was happening—Max was a job, despite everything I was feeling on the inside.

I was so fucked! I needed this job to be over.

I made my way to the designated meeting place where Jace had asked me to meet him. My feet felt heavy and slow. I let out a loud groan, feeling stressed about the whole situation. I spotted Jace’s car parked a few blocks away from the gym. Without wasting any time, I quickly ran toward it and opened the passenger door.

Jace looked at me with suspicion in his eyes and cleared his throat. “Why haven’t you returned any of my calls for the past three hours?” he asked, his voice tinged with annoyance.

I tried to calm him down, “Relax, mate. The girl left me at the café, and I tried to find her again. Why are you parked in front of a public parking space?”

Jace’s face softened slightly. “Well, Casanova, after she left you, I followed her to the police station. She left maybe thirty minutes later, and I followed her here. She hasn’t come down yet.”

I chuckled, knowing Max had given him the slip. I rolled down the window and looked up at the multi-level parking area above us. Sure enough, she must have jumped to the building next to it when she thought she was being followed.

Clever girl.

“You’re wasting your time, buddy. I just met with her back at the boxing gym,” I said.

Jace let out a sigh, clearly annoyed Max had outsmarted him.

“Did you find anything useful, at least? I couldn’t get much out of her when I met her yesterday, and she barely looked at me long enough to hypnotize her,” Jace asked, his tone curious.

I took a deep breath before responding, “Umbridge was just a contract. Max isn’t involved in anything. She just did her job.”

Jace looked at me with a mixture of surprise and amusement. “Wow, you’re already on a first-name basis with her. She must have made a lasting impression on you.”

His tone was teasing, and I rolled my eyes in response.

“Oh, fuck off.”

Jace let out a brief laugh after I landed a light punch on his arm. He then shifted his attention back to the matter at hand, his expression turning serious. “Have you any idea how she managed to take down one of our men? I mean, no human could have done that.”

I paused to consider his question. “Well, she’s certainly strong and fast,” I replied. “She kept me on my toes when we sparred at the boxing gym. But based on my initial meeting with her, she doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. Besides, I would’ve picked up on the scent if she were a werewolf or a vampire.”

No. Max wasn’t either, but she smelled different from other humans. I didn’t know what it was. Thinking back to the smell of her arousal when I gripped her ass and pulled her up on me, my heartbeat accelerated. She was making me go wild.

“Good work, Lukas. I’ll report this to my father, and we can stop this babysitting business. If she knows nothing, then she’s not a threat. By the way, is everything okay with you? You seem a bit tense.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied, sighing with relief. “I have a lot on my mind right now. I recently landed a contract for a construction project, and it’s been keeping me up at night. And honestly, you’re not helping either,” I added with a playful smirk. I couldn’t reveal the real reason for my behaviour to Jace.

Jace rolled his eyes and put on a wounded expression. “Ach, don’t lie to me! I’m not blind. That bounty hunter sure is a sweet piece of ass. You enjoyed following a beautiful girl around. You should have seen her when her shirt became see-through. There wasn’t much left for the imagination. She had a really nice rack if you know what I mean.

I didn’t like how he talked about Max, so I inadvertently growled at his comment, which resulted in Jace raising an eyebrow at me.

“Oh, what’s this, now? Do you… like her? You never like anyone!” Jace’s smile widened when I didn’t reply, showing me his elongated canines. “No? Well, if you’re not interested, you won’t mind if I see her again, then.”

“Please don’t,” I said quickly, trying to downplay the situation. “We all know what happens to your one-night stands. They wake up with no memory of the night before and a quarter of their blood missing. I took the blame for your last fuck up, but I’ll not let you do Max that way.”

“Oh, come on, man. Why’d you have to bring Joanna into this conversation? It’s not my fault that the man I was charged with following had a gorgeous daughter. Plus, she provided me with all the information I needed from her father. I just hadn’t planned on him showing up when I was going down on his daughter. You were supposed to be my lookout.”

I huffed in annoyance and opened the car door, frustrated with Jace’s stubbornness. It seemed like no matter how much I tried to convince him, my opinion didn’t matter. So, instead, I decided that I would have to keep Max away from him, which shouldn’t be that hard, given what happened at Salvatore’s boxing gym. The feelings I had for her were definitely mutual.

“What makes this bounty hunter so special that you don’t want me near her?” he asked.

“Do whatever you feel like doing,” I replied as I got out and walked away. “It’s not like what I say matters, anyway.”

Jace rolled down the passenger window and slowly followed me onto the street. “Get back in the car, Lukas. It’s a thirty-minute drive from here to your house. You won’t walk all the way home,” he said.

I was determined to stick to my decision. “Watch me.”

My mind was made up. Once this job ended, I had every intention of getting to know Max the right way.

I growled when he still followed. “Listen, I get that it’s hard for you to back off, but could you do it this once? For old-time sake?”

Jace tilted his head, but the glint of mischief in his eyes further proved my point that he would not let go that easily.

“I would, but we've already made plans to see each other again,” he admitted.

“I thought you said nothing happened other than she drenched herself with her drink, and you offered to pay for her lunch?”

“Yes, but she has my jacket. She offered to return it to me the next time we meet,” Jace explained with a proud smile.

So that was his plan. To force a second meeting with Max. To what end, though, I had no idea.

Jace leaned back in his seat, a wistful expression on his face. “I can’t resist a mouse playing hard to get. It’s like a challenge, you know? And that huntress, she’s got this mysteriousness about her that draws me in. Even though she’s not really my type, I can’t get her out of my head.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I felt the same way. Max was in my mind constantly, and I didn’t want to stop thinking about her, about all the things I would love to do to her.

“Look, since we’re both interested in pursuing her, let’s make a deal,” Jace continued. “Once this whole thing blows over, which should be relatively soon, we won’t talk about her when we’re together, and we won’t try to sabotage each other’s chances. I don’t want a girl to come between our friendship.”

If we did this and “dated” her, Max would be free to decide which of us she liked best. I didn’t like the idea of competing with Jace for Max’s affections, but it seemed inevitable. However, I was confident I could win her over. Jace wasn’t the love-you-long type of guy. He was a playboy who changed toys whenever it suited him, and I didn’t think Max was into that. I just hoped she would see it quickly and ditch him the first chance she got.

“Best man gets the girl?” I stuck my hand through the car window for Jace to shake it.

“Deal.”